oss his sleep."
--BROWNING: _Paracelsus_.

This was the letter which Sir Hugo put into Deronda's hands:--

TO MY SON, DANIEL DERONDA.

My good friend and yours, Sir Hugo Mallinger, will have told you that
I wish to see you. My health is shaken, and I desire there should be
no time lost before I deliver to you what I have long withheld. Let
nothing hinder you from being at the _Albergo dell' Italia_ in
Genoa by the fourteenth of this month. Wait for me there. I am
uncertain when I shall be able to make the journey from Spezia, where
I shall be staying. That will depend on several things. Wait for
me--the Princess Halm-Eberstein. Bring with you the diamond ring that
Sir Hugo gave you. I shall like to see it again.--Your unknown mother,

LEONORA HALM-EBERSTEIN.

This letter with its colorless wording gave Deronda no clue to what was
in reserve for him; but he could not do otherwise than accept Sir
Hugo's reticence, which seemed to imply some pledge not to anticipate
the mother's disclosures; and the discovery that his life-long
conjectures had been mistaken checked further surmise. Deronda could
not hinder his imagination from taking a quick flight over what seemed
possibilities, but he refused to contemplate any of them as more likely
than another, lest he should be nursing it into a dominant desire or
repugnance, instead of simply preparing himself with resolve to meet
the fact bravely, whatever it might turn out to be.

In this state of mind he could not have communicated to any one the
reason for the absence which in some quarters he was obliged to mention
beforehand, least of all to Mordecai, whom it would affect as
powerfully as it did himself, only in rather a different way. If he
were to say, "I am going to learn the truth about my birth," Mordecai's
hope would gather what might prove a painful, dangerous excitement. To
exclude suppositions, he spoke of his journey as being undertaken by
Sir Hugo's wish, and threw as much indifference as he could into his
manner of announcing it, saying he was uncertain of its duration, but
it would perhaps be very short.

"I will ask to have the child Jacob to stay with me," said Mordecai,
comforting himself in this way, after the first mournful glances.

"I will drive round and ask Mrs. Cohen to let him come," said Mirah.

"The grandmother will deny you nothing," said Deronda. "I'm glad you
were a little